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The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat: Picador Classic

Book by Oliver Sacks · 14 quotes · Ifs, Men, Narrative

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AllIfsMenNarrativeDiseaseDramaFeelingsFeelsIdentityIndividualKnowsLostMaySelfStoriesUniqueWellsAnd LoveAnimaAstoundedBases

The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat: Picador Classic Quotes

“The power of music, narrative and drama is of the greatest practical and theoretical importance. ... We see how the retarded, unable to perform fairly simple tasks involving perhaps four or five movements or procedures in sequence, can do these perfectly if they work to music.”

IfsCan DoSimpleFiveFourMovementDramaTasksImportancePracticalsNarrativeSequenceTheoreticalProceduresInvolvingRetardedPower Of Music
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“The miracle is that, in most cases, he succeeds - for the powers of survival, of the will to survive, and to survive as a unique inalienable individual, are absolutely, the strongest in our being: stronger than any impulses, stronger than disease.”

IndividualCasesSucceedDiseaseSurvivalUniqueMiracleStrongerImpulseStrongestWill To Survive
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“But the saddest difference between them was that Zazetsky, as Luria said, 'fought to regain his lost faculties with the indomitable tenacity of the damned,' whereas Dr P. was not fighting, did not know what was lost. But who was more tragic, or who was more damned -- the man who knew it, or the man who did not?”

KnowsMenSaidFightingLostDifferencesTragicFacultyDrsTenacitySaddestIndomitable
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“To be ourselves we must have ourselves – possess, if need be re-possess, our life-stories. We must “recollect” ourselves, recollect the inner drama, the narrative, of ourselves. A man needs such a narrative, a continuous inner narrative, to maintain his identity, his self.”

IfsMenNeedsSelfStoriesOur LivesIdentityDramaNarrativeLife Story
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“For 'wellness', naturally, is no cause for complaint - people relish it, they enjoy it, they are at the furthest pole from complaint. People complain of feeling ill - not well ... Thus, though a patient will scarcely complain of being 'very well', they may become suspicious if they feel 'too well'.”

PeopleIfsFeelsWellsMayFeelingsCausesEnjoyHealthPatientIllComplainingWellnessComplaintsSuspiciousRelish
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“La speranza che recuperi la memoria è poca o nulla. Dal punto di vista neuropsicologico lei può fare poco o niente; ma nell'ambito dell'Individuale forse può molto. Un uomo non consiste di sola memoria. Ha sentimento, volontà, sensibilità, coscienza morale... è in queste cose che lei può trovare il modo di arrivare al suo paziente e di cambiarlo." Ormai conosco Jimmie da nove anni, e dal punto di vista neurologico non è minmamente cambiato. Presenta ancora la gravissima, devastante sindorme di Korsakov, non è in grado di ricordare un particolare isolato per più di pochi secondi. Ma dal punto di vista umano, spirituale, egli è a volte un uomo completamente diverso: non più incapace di stare fermo, annoiato e perduto, bensì profondamente attento alla bellezza e all'anima del mondo, ricco di tutte le categorie kierkgaardiane, l'estetica, la morale, la religiosa, la drammatica. La scienza empirica non tiene conto dell'anima, di ciò che costituisce e determina l'individuo; rimane intatta la possibilità di una reintegrazione attraverso l'arte, la comunione, il contatto con lo spirito umano.”

MemoriaAnimaScienzaSensoDisabilitàNeurologia
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